"A vast empty Western landscape. The camera pans across it. Then the shot slides onto a sunburned, desperate face. The long shot has become a closeup without a cut, revealing that the landscape was not empty but occupied by a desperado very close to us.
In these opening frames, Sergio Leone established a rule that he follows throughout "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." The rule is that the ability to see is limited by the sides of the frame. At important moments in the film, what the camera cannot see, the characters cannot see, and that gives Leone the freedom to surprise us with entrances that cannot be explained by the practical geography of his shots."
Discuss this idea of the frame and how it is used in this film (paragraph 1); choose one other film and discuss the idea of the frame in that film as well (paragraph 2).
In "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", Leone uses the frame in creative ways in order to create the suspense that drives the film. In the scene where Tuco and Blondie have to kill Angel Eyes' men, Leone uses the frame and angles in a way that portrays the point of view and therefore the suspense that the characters are feeling. As Tuco and Blondie make their way down the middle of the street, we do not see any of their enemies. The camera shoots them at a high angle with part of a second floor window in the foreground. This creates the feeling that the characters are being observed, initiating the suspense that drives the scene forward. A gun barrel then pushes itself into the left of the frame, pointed directly at the main characters. As Angle Eyes' men advance forward, they come in and out of the frame. The landscape adds to this. Smoke blows through the setting, the houses are decrepit and for miles there is only desert, adding to the feeling of uncertainty. The consistency of these elements within the frame is what allows Leone to cut with ease and keep the tension in the film high.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Grand Budapest Hotel", Wes Anderson uses his frame in a different, but perhaps more interesting way. In most of Anderson's films, he uses tracking and the frame to introduce comical or jarring elements whereas Leone uses his frame for the uncertainties that dominate the West. For instance, when the painting in Grand Budapest is stolen, Anderson uses a very kinetic whip pan over to the spot where it had been showing the distress of the character. Also, information is revealed using the camera. In the tracking shots during the opening of the film, information about the hotel is revealed. The camera will track through walls to reveal extras sitting alone in the foreground while others walk solemnly in the background and behind the walls. This creates the rundown feeling that Anderson is trying to achieve in the opening.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly uses framing to amplify intensity in moments of exitement throughout the film. One cannot forget the final showdown of the film in which the characters eyes are the only things onscreen for a significant amount of time. In this part of the film, the framing becomes so cramped that the viewer can’t help but feel agitated. The camera cuts back and forth from one pair of eyes to the next. This is an example of open framing as the characters’ faces take up the entirety of the frame which forces the viewer to pay attention to the movements of their eyes and emphasizes the finality of the showdown. This open framing builds tension because the space behind the characters cannot be seen as well as their proximity to one another, or even the movements of the rest of their bodies. When the shots finally do go off, the aftermath is immediately shown in a long shot with closed framing. Nothing important is offscreen, so, the transition to closed framing comes as a relief after the intensity of the showdown.
ReplyDeleteThe 400 blows uses open framing at the very end of the movie. This is as the Camera is dollying along with Antoine as he is running along the street and eventually stops on the beach. The camera is in close proximity to Antoine, leaving his surroundings unknown to the viewer. The offscreen space serves as a way of conveying that Antoine can go anywhere at this point and the fact that the viewer cannot see what is offscreen also shows that Antoine cannot see where he will go. It is all left up to the audiences’, and Antoine’s imagination. The mystery of Antoine’s life after the events of the film is even more amplified as the shot goes into a freeze frame and zooms in on Antoine’s face.
Sergio Leone uses offscreen space very interestingly in The Good the Bad and the Ugly, limiting the ability to see by the sides of the frame. This is shown in the scene called "Tracking Blondie" where Tuco is riding his horse around the desert trying to find Blondie, stopping several times to pick up cigars left behind by Blondie, still lit. One could assume that with all the open spaces and lack of anything to really hide behind, if Tuco was that close behind Blondie that he would find still lit cigars, he would be close enough to at some point have seen where Blondie went. However, Leone does not allow that and he cuts to a CU of the barrel of a gun. This shot pans right to reveal Blondie, aiming the gun at a group of people. When we see a close up of Blondie, another gun comes into frame, right at his head. This gun is held by Tuco, who has apparently found Blondie. The use of the sides of the frame allows for Tuco's entrance although geographically it doesn't make much sense. This keeps viewers on their feet because they have no knowledge of who might come into the frame and what might happen. It keeps viewers surprised.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of open or closed framing is also used in Terrence Malik’s Days of Heaven. When Abby marries the farmer and their lives all become easier and more carefree with his money, the majority of shots become open, as they are free and the world is their oyster, whereas before they had money, they were trapped working bad jobs, following the work all over the country. During this time before, Malick used a lot more closed frames, such as when Abby and Bill were in the dark room with Linda before they left for the farm, and in a MS of them on the farm under a wagon, for example. Although it is basically the same concept of open and closed framing, it creates two very different effects on the two films.